Learnersourcing subgoal labeling to support learning from how-to videos

Subgoal labeling [1] is a technique known to support learning new knowledge by clustering a group of steps into a higher-level conceptual unit. It has been shown to improve learning by helping learners to form the right mental model. While many learners view video tutorials nowadays, subgoal labels are often not available unless manually provided at production time. This work addresses the challenge of collecting and presenting subgoal labels to a large number of video tutorials. We introduce a mixed-initiative approach to collect subgoal labels in a scalable and efficient manner. The key component of this method is learnersourcing, which channels learners’ activities using the video interface into useful input to the system. The presented method will contribute to the broader availability of subgoal labels in how-to videos.

Truly a win-win use of learner energies. By focusing attention on creating the subgoals skilled learners will master the material faster and more thoroughly. Having the subgoals available will make the material more accessible to less-skilled learners. This, of course, is an hypothesis on my part (read: guess) which would make a nice research project. I wouldn’t be too surprised if I have it backwards and less-skilled students turn out to benefit more from creating the subgoals while skillful learners don’t need them. Either way, it’s a good device for enhancing engagement with the video material.

Lauren has now replicated her original study with high school teachers in an all online setting. As is common with all online projects, she had a high attrition rate, so only half as many participants as she wanted completed the subgoal video experiment. But she still had statistical significance because the effect size was twice as large! We don’t have a simple explanation for this. Why would subgoal labels be twice as effective for high school teachers as they are for undergraduates (in a traditional psych experiment pool)?

I suspect that the high school teachers are more invested in the result, and that it has deeper meaning for them than for the psych student pool. The high school teachers would have more intrinsic motivation for the task, as it would yield more value for them.

[…] At ICER 2012 (see post here), her paper showed that subgoal labels inserted into App Inventor videos led to improved learning, retention (a week later), and even transfer to new App building problems, all compared to the exact same videos without the subgoal labels. This paper was cited by Rob Moore and his students at MIT in their work developing crowdsourced subgoal labels for videos (see post here). […]